Holly Escapes from Her Constraint Therapy Cast

My daughter, Holly, is a sweet 5-year old girl with a number of diagnoses – Left-Sided Hemiplegia, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, PDD-NOS, Developmental Delays, Behavior and Sensory Issues. One day each month, we go to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for all of Holly’s medical appointments. Our day begins with Physical Therapy. Holly has fun about 70% of the time. There is so much there that she has a hard time staying focused. If she sees something she that looks like it is more fun, then she is off and racing to it. We normally go to lunch and enjoy relaxing while we watch the fish. Then its off to Occupational Therapy.

In April, Holly received a bi-valve cast so we could begin doing some constraint therapy at home. I warned the therapist that Holly is VERY good at getting out of any arm/hand device. In the photo, you can see the variety of braces and hand splints Holly has worn in the past. Once she got strong enough the soft hand splints started getting lost. One-by-one they disappeared! The Occupational Therapist assured me that Holly would not be able to get out of the bi-valve cast (at least not easily); famous last words! 🙂 The picture on the left shows Holly working on getting out of the cast. It took her two minutes to get the velcro straps off and another five minutes to get the cast off. She was getting upset with the cast and asking for me to help and I refused telling her that I only wanted her to keep it on until we get to our next appointment so she could show the doctor her new cast. On the up side, it encourages me that she can be so determined. I know she will be able to do anything she wants to do!

Our day at Children’s ended with our monthly visit to the Neuropsychologist. The doctor helps me come up with ideas to help Holly handle certain situations. Our most recent problems with her behavior is slapping. She slaps when happy or mad. This causes issues at school and at home. The doctor believes it is the level of excitement she reaches (good or bad) and this is her form of releasing that excitement. Most of the time Holly is a sweet, good-natured, happy little girl. She loves to be loved and she is very social and loves interacting with everyone. She has come so far; we are proud of everything she has accomplished.

Holly is in Preschool where she receives PT, OT, ST, and has a special education teacher in charge of her. Holly takes part in an Autism based dance class — she loves it! Holly is on a soccer team, but so far is still afraid to get on the field with all of the other kids; I think she is just afraid of getting run over.